Skraal
armorial.]] Skraal was a Loyalist Captain of the World Eaters Legion during the Great Crusade and the opening stages of the Horus Heresy. He is noted for his participation in the hunt for and subsequent destruction of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion's unique ''Apocalypse''-class Battleship, the Furious Abyss. Ultimately, he sacrificed himself in order for the mission to be successful. History When the Ultramarines vessel Fist of Macragge was destroyed under mysterious circumstances, the Ultramarines Fleet Commander Lysimachus Cestus assembled an ad hoc strike force to investigate the warship's destruction. Skraal and his World Eaters worked alongside Battle-Brothers from the Space Wolves, Thousand Sons and the Ultramarines. Skraal led his World Eaters in a bold raid on the starport of Bakka Triumveron in an attempt to board the Word Bearers' vessel the Wrathful. Aboard that starship the World Eaters valiantly fought against daemonic boarders. Those few World Eaters that survived were led by Captain Skraal and an Ultramarines officer named Antiges during a daring sabotage mission aboard the Furious Abyss. Once on-board, the mission nearly ended in disaster when the Loyalist strike force was all but annihilated with the exception of Skraal. The World Eaters captain managed to successfully avoid capture or being killed for several solar weeks, until he was finally able to link up with another Loyalist strike force under the command of Captain Cestus. Skraal willingly sacrificed himself to buy both Cestus and the Wolf Lord Brynngar Sturmdreng time to sabotage and destroy the Furious Abyss. The volatile World Eater savagely cleaved his way through the bodyguard of the Dark Apostle Zadkiel, suffering a score of mortal wounds until he was finally halted by a point-blank Bolt Pistol shot. Before collapsing from his wounds, Skraal managed one final swing, cleaving Zadkiel's Bolt Pistol and hand. Enraged, the Dark Apostle impaled the World Eater captain through the head with his Dark Crozius, killing him. Appearance & Personality Skraal's head was covered in heavy scar tissue with pronounced veins and a recurring twitch that made his right eye spasm. This combination of physical traits made him have an unhinged appearance. This World Eaters captain's voice was described as having an iron quality to it. Like most World Eaters officers, Skraal was a formidable warrior who battled with his berserker lusts. Unlike many of his battle-brothers, he came to recognise the need to get to grips with the enemy in melee distance was not always tactically astute. Nevertheless, he also recognised the need for both him and his warriors to spill blood, which was of paramount importance. Thus, at times he allowed and even encouraged the slaughter of non-combatants such as the work-crews they massacred at the Bakka Triumveron dockyards. Skraal often appeared on edge fairly frequently and was intensely passionate in some regards. He channeled his emotional responses into a pool of rage that he could use to fuel himself in combat, enabling him to become a superlative close-combat warrior of extraordinary abilities. However, this aspect of his nature was challenged when he witnessed the profane treatment of the corpse of the Ultramarines officer, Antiges, by the Word Bearers, which immediately cooled Skraal's rage and shocked the captain into a state of numbness. Wargear *'Mark V Heresy Power Armour' - Skraal wore a suit of Mark V pattern power armour that appeared as worn, chipped and battered as his face. His faceplate appeared skull-like. His armour was still in his Legion's pre-heresy white and blue colours. *'Chainaxe' *'Bolt Pistol' *'Storm Shield' *'Frag Grenades' *'Krak Grenades' Sources *''Furious Abyss'' (Novel) by Ben Counter, pp. 62-63, 65, 156, 187, 195-196, 222, 266, 298-299, 300, 382, 399 Category:S Category:Characters Category:History Category:Imperial Characters Category:Space Marines Category:World Eaters